A little over 600 years ago, Fahranur, the First City was abandoned due to the Scarab Plague. It spread from this area to the rest of Istan very quickly, and people had little to no time to flee the island. Even the Primeval Kings fell to this mysterious affliction. After much time had passed, people came back to Istan and built a new capital, Kamadan, the Jewel of Istan, to replace Fahranur. As you can imagine, people avoid visiting the old city. So I was pleased that Cver joined my party to explore this area.

Here is a fallen statue with strange features.

This building was abandoned when the plague swept through here 600 years ago. Without maintenance, the walls around the statue have crumbled.

Ahead of us was the entrance to the city’s walls. From here you can see a giant stone crusher at the front door (and you can hear it from even further away). Cver and I thought it was a bizarre thing to put there. Perhaps it was put in place to prevent the undead from escaping and terrorizing the rest of Istan. If you’re careful and time your steps, it is easy to get past the crusher.

Inside the city, we found four statues of sunspears and a fountain. It’s becoming clear to me that the people of Istan absolutely love having statues everywhere. The only other place where I have seen so many in a single area is the Crystal Desert.

I didn’t expect the undead of Fahranur to be such a hassle to fight. It took us quite a while to reach the spot where Kormir and some Elonian adventurers defeated the Apocrypha. In its place, we found Haioss, Blessed Wind; a water djinn. The evil that emanates from this spot made us feel a bit ill. I’m under the impression that it’s all in my mind, but just to make sure we moved away and onto other areas to explore.

You can tell that the ancient builders put a lot of thought into the positioning of statues here. When the sun shines in this direction, it brings this sunspear to life. You can just imagine him marching onward into battle.

Outside of the city, we encountered vicious plants, monstrous bugs, skale, and harpies. From this cliffside we caught a nice view of even more statues and a boat.

I found this portion of Fahranur to be most pleasant. There were some butterflies amidst the peace and quiet. Cver was just glad to find something that didn’t have fangs or reek of death.

Near the exit to Blacktide Den, we found a small stream.

Moving on to explore the remainder of the area, I turned to my left and got a view of two statues. Beneath the structure is a pool of water, which is fed by a waterfall.

To end our exciting day, we gathered around the flame jets and cheered.